Property Law UK

Basic principle

Jennings v Rice
[2002] EWCA 159

Facts

C worked for many years for an elderly lady for nothing on a promise that "he would be alright" and "this will all be yours one day". On the full facts the judge found that there was an estoppel and awarded him £200,000 based on the cost of care. He refused to award the full value of the house and furniture (£435,000) because he thought that would be excessive. C appealed.

Decision

In dismissing the appeal the CA discussed the principles to be applied when deciding how to satisfy the equity. In particular, the principle of proportionality applies. The end result must be a just one having regard to the assumption made by the party asserting the estoppel and the detriment which he has experience.

"The essence of the doctrine of proprietary estoppel is to do what is necessary to avoid an unconscionable result, and a disproportionate remedy cannot be the right way of going about that". (Robert Walker J, para 56)
Remedial discretion

Bargain and non-bargain cases

Powell v Benney
[2007] EWCA Civ 1283

Summary

In exercising its discretion in this case, where the claimants alleged a constructive trust, the court ordered the return of the money expended by them rather than an interest in the property.

Facts

1992: The Claimants (C's) befriend the deceased (when he was alive!). He owns two properties.
1993: C's look after the deceased and take care of his day to day affairs. Deceased says he will leave his properties to the C's
1994: Deceased offers C's the use of his properties. They were untidy and run-down and Claimants had to de-clutter them.
2000: Deceased writes out a note saying that he is leaving his properties to Claimants. They do some further work to the properties
2003: Deceased dies. C's invite his personal representative to transfer the properties to them, but after taking legal advice she refuses
2004: C's commence legal proceedings claiming that the properties were held in trust for them by way of constructive trust/proprietary estoppel.

First instance

The trial judge considered Yaxley v Gotts [2000] Ch 162; Gillet v Holt [2001] Ch 210 and Jennings v Rice (above)and considered that not only was detriment an essential ingredient of proprietary estoppel but that there had to be a causal link between the assurance relied on and the detriment asserted and that the detriment alleged must be pleaded and proved. On the facts he considered that to receive the two properties worth £280,000 was out of all proportion to the detriment the Claimants had suffered, and that justice would be done if the Claimants were recompensed £20,000 to reflect the monies they expended and the time they spent in the properties. The Claimants appealed.

Held on appeal

The judge had clearly rejected the constructive trust claim, and had not misdirected himself on detriment. Although it was not particularly clear how he had arrived at the figure of £20,000, the Court would not interfere.

The case principally involved the scope of the remedial discretion in proprietary estoppel. In Jennings v Rice it was noted that Robert Walker LJ had divided the range of possible situations into two classes:

Here, insofar as it was contended that the claim fell within the bargain category, it required that the claimant's expectations and the element of detriment be defined with reasonable clarity. That was not the case. There was no bargain or consensual arrangement and the deceased did not require the Claimants to do the detrimental acts upon which they now rely. That was a matter for them.

Comment

In short, what this case serves to highlight is the nexus between assurance and detriment where the claimant's case turns on bargain. If the claimant expects the relief to vindicate his bargain he will need to prove expectation and detriment. Otherwise, he will be left to the general discretion of the court in finding the minimum equity to do justice.

Statement of principles

Assurance relied and detriment relationship

Davies v Davies
[2016] EWCA Civ 463

Summary

The Court of Appeal allowed an appeal in relation to the extent of the equitable relief to be granted to a daughter following the success of her proprietary estoppel claim against her parents, the owners of a farm.

Background

This was an appeal against the second trial in relation to an issue between the parties. The first case related to the threshold question of whether the daughter was entitled to some equitable relief by virtue of a proprietary estoppel claim. The Court of Appeal held that she was so entitled (First Case). This present case concerned the question of how that equity should be satisfied.

Facts

The parents (P) owned and ran a substantial dairy farm consisting of the business and land. They wished the farm to remain in the family but the daughter (D) was the only one of their children interested in running it. She lived on the farm for many years and worked on it for low pay. There were a number of disagreements over the years, especially when D married a man the parents disapproved of and D stopped living and working at the farm at various points, finally leaving and stopping work there in 2012. P changed their wills on several occasions. D claimed an equity against P by virtue of proprietary estoppel which was decided in principal in her favour by the First Case.

First instance

D claimed that she had worked hard for a low wage for many years on P’s substantial dairy farm as they had repeatedly assured her she would eventually take over the business (and own the land). She was the only one of their three children that wanted to continue the business. P argued that D was paid a fair wage and had free board and lodgings, and should only receive a third equal share of the farm with her two sisters. At the trial the judge rejected the parents' offer to pay £350,000 in respect of the claim and awarded her £1.3 million. P appealed to the Court of Appeal.

Decision on appeal

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and reduced the judge's award of £1.3 million to £500,000. (It was common ground at the appeal that the eventual award would be purely monetary and the farm and business would not be transferred to D.)

The Court of Appeal held that the judge had applied far too broad a brush and failed to analyse the facts that he found with sufficient rigour. Nor did he explain why he reached the conclusion that he did. Although he said that he took “expectation” as an appropriate starting point, he did not explain which expectation out of the many he found that he regarded as the starting point.

This was far removed from a case where the same unambiguous testamentary assurance was repeated many times publicly over a long period of years. The judge recognised that the expectations were changing and uncertain but his conclusions did not take into account his findings about the changing nature of P’s wills, which left their estate to all three sisters and then to a discretionary trust. Nor did it reflect his finding that everyone knew that the company did not own the land. The Judge had identified two broad strands in the detriment suffered:

That she had worked for long hours on the farm without full payment; and
That had she not worked on the farm she would have been able to work shorter hours in a working environment of her choosing, and she would have been free of the difficult working relationship she had with her parents.

This meant placing a money value on both financial and non-financial aspects of the detriment suffered, as well as on the expectations that were aroused. The judge had made no finding that any of what she gave up was irretrievable as he found expressly that this was not a case in which D’s whole life was positioned on the representations made to her. P had offered £350,000 but the judge had failed properly to analyse the offer and in particular he had failed to appreciate that the offer itself already contained much that went towards satisfying the expectations raised on the facts of the case.

The Court pointed out that any case based on proprietary estoppel was fact sensitive but set out a number of relevant legal propositions in these cases, as follows (see para 38):

An assurance of sufficient clarity;
Reliance by the claimant on that assurance; and
Detriment to the claimant in consequence of his reasonable reliance

Comment

This case was far removed from a case like Gillett v Holt [2001] Ch 210 where the same unambiguous testamentary assurance was repeated many times publicly over a long period of years; or a case like Thorner v Major [2009] UKHL 18, which followed the same pattern. In this case there was a series of different and sometimes mutually incompatible expectations, some of which had been repudiated by the daughter herself, others of which had been superseded by later expectations. Although this was not one of them, in some cases it may well be that the impossibility of evaluating the extent of imponderable and speculative non-financial detriment (for example life-changing choices) may lead the court to decide that relief in specie should be given.

This case also demonstrates expectations/reliance/detriment can also be quite low.

Back to top

If you would like to subscribe to the full monthly update please click below.

Options
Monthly Updates	From £207 + VAT (1 year) (Free for charities and students)